Tiananmen Square Crackdown, 1989

This past weekend marked the 28th Anniversary of the tragic crackdown and massacre of protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Students calling for a more democratic government were met with Chinese troops and tanks in a brutal show of force. Although there is no officially reported death toll, estimates range from several hundred to thousands.

At the National Museum of China in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, one will not find any exhibit on the dramatic and tragic events which took place in Tiananmen Square on the 4th of June, 1989.

It all began with the 1989 death of Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party leader, who had become a symbol of democratic reform with his work of moving China in the direction of a more open political system.

Following his death on April 15, thousands of students began marching through Beijing to Tiananmen Square, calling for a more democratic government. In the following weeks, thousands joined the students in the square to protest China’s Communist rule.

Student at Rest – Tiananmen Square, Beijing, May 1989. Robert Croma

Tensions escalated when over 100 students began a hunger strike in the square on May 13, and over the next few days, the number increased to several thousand. Six days later on May 19, a rally at Tiananmen Square drew an estimated 1.2 million people. General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang, appeared and pleaded for an end to the demonstrations. On that same day, Premier Li Peng imposed martial law.

China blocked live American news telecasts in Beijing on June 1st, and reporters were prohibited to photograph or video the demonstrations or Chinese troops. The next day, singer Hou Dejian gave a concert in the square in support of the demonstrators, and a reported 100,000 people attended.

A protest leader addresses the crowd at Tiananmen. Flickr: Robert Croma

Two days later at about 1 a.m. on June 4th, Chinese troops reached Tiananmen Square. They began firing on civilians and students and continued throughout the day, bringing an end to the demonstrations.

One of the iconic moments of the stand taken at Tiananmen Square took place on June 5 when a man stood alone in the street for several minutes to block a column of tanks before being pulled away by onlookers.

The National Security Archive published “Tiananmen Square, 1989: The Declassified History,” in 1999. It included U.S. State Department documents regarding events that occurred during the demonstrations.

“The Tiananmen Papers,” a collection of internal government documents such as transcriptions of notes, meeting minutes and eyewitness accounts was published by two Chinese scholars in January of 2001. The Chinese government, however, claimed the papers were fabricated material.

The U.S. and rights groups have called on China to account for the Tiananmen crackdown but Chinese leadership has declined all calls to reverse its assessment of events

On June 6, 2015, in a rare comment by state media on the subject, the English edition of the Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, wrote in an editorial, “Keeping quiet in public places about the 1989 turmoil has been accepted by the public as a political strategy to maintain social unity,”

4 thoughts on “Tiananmen Square Crackdown, 1989”

Libby, when Chinese use their Google and try to find out what happened on June 4th, nothing comes up. Yet, there is an underground who calls it May 35th, where people can find some information. It is like it did not happen. I am sure the US president would like to do this. Of course, he is doing it with climate change deletions from the EPA website. Keith

Wow Keith! That’s fascinating information. May 35th…I will study that so I can expand on my story for next year’s look-back…

I was prompted to write about Tiananmen because of the disturbing actions this administration is taking. Particularly DTs desire to have tanks at his inaugural and his hatred of the first amendment and the press. Thank you as always for your comments

Recent Stories: The Sidewalk

Cities are hot stuff these days. After a half a century of people fleeing the nation’s cities for a “better life” in the suburbs, they are coming back. As city centers are becoming more and more desirable places to live, rising property values are making it impossible for the less fortunate to stay. Those who […]

If the first half of the twentieth century was defined by the vertical expansion of American cities with building of soaring skyscrapers, the second half was marked by the migration to the suburbs to escape the traffic, noise and crime of the cities in search of homes with more living and yard space. With this […]

Putting up shopping centers is big business. Some may cringe when they read of another strip mall going up in their town or pound their fist on the steering wheel when they see a Coming Soon! sign on a wooded lot, announcing another shopping center. Years ago, it was normal to visit a shopping mall […]

Sustainability is big business in building, but what can be done to reduce environmental impacts of the freight transport sector to make it more sustainable? Currently, freight emissions and noise pollution are a big problem in and around the port areas. To make matters worse, greenfield areas are threatened as the demand for more warehouse […]

Once the site of the world’s largest mahogany plant, Carteret’s burgeoning Waterfront Park, will continue to expand. For a century, residents of this chemical coast borough could not gaze up their own waterfront because they were blocked from doing so by private industrial waterfront structures. Last December, Mayor Dan Reiman announced the receipt of two […]